A Christmas Blessing
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: Family is always the best blessing of all at Christmas time or any other time of the year.  Mild Turtlecest Slash.


Title: "A Christmas Blessing"  
>Author: Pirate Turner<br>Dedicated To: My beloved, magnificent, wonderful, amazing, and always inspirational husband Jack, who has helped to revive my interest in this fandom by giving me some wonderful Christmas presents with TMNT, like a brand new Coming Out of Their Shells tape  
>Rating: PG<br>Summary: Family is always the best blessing of all at Christmas time or any other time of the year.  
>Warnings: Mild Slash<br>Date Written: 25 December, 2011  
>Word Count (excluding heading): 2,259<br>Disclaimer: Splinter, Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, April O'Neil, Shredder, the Foot, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are ﾩ & TM their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission. Everything else except the public domain characters used within belongs to the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.

April looked up with a smile as her doorbell rang, announcing the only visitors she ever had on an even semi-normal basis. Not, she reflected, that there was anything else normal about the four, hopefully five, men standing on the other side of her door at this time. They were all as abnormal as one could possibly get, something straight out of some people's nightmares and her own dreams, but she loved every one of them in their own way.

She cringed involuntarily as she wiped her hands clean on her apron, then lit the tall, white candles sitting at each end of the table she'd bought just for this occasion. It ate up most of her apartment's space, and she'd definitely be getting rid of it right after the holiday. She might try to tuck it into storage to have for next year, but it definitely wouldn't be staying here with her. Not like her visitors. She wished they could stay with her forever, but she knew they'd all be leaving far too soon.

She fondly remembered the time they had stayed with her for a while after their home had been destroyed by the Foot. She had complained about the boys' messiness, but their presence had made her small apartment actually feel like a real home for the first time and she'd missed their companionship ever since. Her red lips twisted into a wry smile. She'd even thought of joining them in the sewers, but she just couldn't give up the cleanliness and modern privileges that living in the upworld granted her, at least not yet.

The doorbell rang again, shattering April's memories. She heard concerned murmuring coming from the other side of her door and called out just as Raphael was suggesting they kick the door down. "Come in."

Her door swung effortlessly open for her friends at the turn of the handle, and they ambled in with a mixture of looks upon their faces. Donatello looked around her apartment in concern, almost as though he expected the Foot to jump out at them from behind her sofa or some one to run through the kitchen and kidnap her. "The proverbial invitation of the unlocked door, while it may be an unspoken declaration of friendship," he absently mindedly rubbed his dome as he continued his warning, "and trust where we are concerned, and whereas it may have been customary for you up dwellers at one time, is really, drastically unsafe in today's modern society." He looked at her in concern.

Raphael followed his scolding with a dark scowl. "I thought we taught you better'n that, Ape."

She smiled shyly. These five were the only men in the entire world who ever managed to make her feel shy or even doubtful about any decision she made. "It's Christmas, guys. What can happen on Christmas?"

"Too much," Leonardo replied softly, his own gaze swiftly searching her apartment in an effort to make certain that there were no other unlocked entrances through which the Foot could attack.

Michelangelo was the only truly joyful one of the lot thus far. He jumped up and down on the balls of his green, three-toed feet and grinned broadly. "Come on, guys! Like April said, you know it's Christmas, and lots of good things happen on Christmas! Santa can come at any time; you know he'll be bringing us toys!" April's red head bobbed up and down as she watched Michelangelo springing; she marveled as he jumped so high that he could have hit her roof upon the sight of her Christmas tree and the presents tucked neatly beneath it. "See! Look here!" he exclaimed, bounding over to the tree. "He's already been here!"

April gave a small and silent sigh of relief as her green eyes softened. She'd planned right when she had selected to put Santa's name as the giver of the gifts waiting for her friends underneath her tree. The older ones would know that the presents came from her, but Michelangelo would think that they had actually come from jolly, old Saint Nicholas himself.

"Santa hasn't - " Raphael started but stopped when Splinter raised his staff, swished his tail, flicked his ears, and whispered his name. His angry face fell. "I'm just saying - " he started to growl.

"Raphael," Splinter warned. His long, wiry tail swished out from underneath his robes.

Raphael hushed reluctantly, knowing that Sensei would have him doing flips yet even though it was Christmas Eve. He knew their beloved father tried hard to keep the image of Santa Claus alive, but there was only so many second hand items that could be found in the sewers and given for presents before any Turtle with half a brain would figure out from whence his gifts were really coming.

"April!" Donatello exclaimed suddenly, spying the long table covered in clean, white linen and mounds of food. His eyes flicked over the white candles with respect but then looked dubiously at the turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, casseroles, deviled eggs, and even the buns.

Raphael eyed the meal April had pain stakingly prepared with scrutiny. "Ape, you know we eat pizza," he started.

Splinter's tail again cut through the air at his son's dismissal of April's hard work. "Raphael," he snapped and then shifted his gaze to look kindly upon April. "April, my dear child," he looked back to the food with deep admiration and shook his head slowly, his whiskers bristling, "you should not have gone to so much trouble for us."

She beamed. "It's no trouble at all, Sensei, and besides, I wanted to." She had been planning this meal for over a year now. She hadn't even known how to cook, not really beyond scrambling a few eggs and burning water, but when she had overheard how the boys had ignored Splinter's efforts on last year's Thanksgiving and opted for pizza instead, she had determined that she would give him a true holiday dinner. She had wanted to give it to him for Thanksgiving, but as usual, the Shredder and other villains had interrupted their plans and she'd not had enough time left to prepare a proper feast.

"Hey, Raphael!" Michelangelo suddenly called and ran over her couch. April's green eyes widened as she watched the Ninja Turtle scale her couch, and then she laughed. It really had been too long since she'd had the boys in her apartment, and she didn't care if they broke everything! It was Christmas, after all, and their family, such as it was, was whole! "You said Santa Claus wasn't real, but this is from him!" Mikey declared, shaking a large gift in Raph's annoyed face. "You gotta believe now!"

"I ain't gotta do no such thing," Raphael grumbled, starting to pull his sai, "and you'll get that dang thing outta my face or - "

Donatello tisked. "Incorporating a double negative such as that utters your true meaning useless. You just told Mikey that you did have to believe instead, Raph. What you should have said was - "

"Shut up, Donnie!" Raph snarled.

"Huh?" Mikey blinked in confusion at Donatello's attempted English lesson.

"Raphael, that is enough!" Splinter's tail cracked through the air underneath his robes. The poor, old ratman's robes were falling apart, and April knew he'd love the new, chenille robes she'd bought for him - if his boys even let him get to unwrapping his presents.

Her doorbell rang again, and everybody turned toward it. "Pizza!" the unwitting delivery boy called out, and April smiled as the argument was forgotten and the boys all ran for the door.

"My wallet's on the counter," she called after them before turning back to Sensei. He had his head cocked to one side and was studying her rather intently. She smiled brightly at him and shrugged. "I knew they wouldn't eat it," she explained in answer of why she had ordered pizza and yet prepared such a feast, "but I hoped we could enjoy it together."

"Absolutely, my dear girl," his soft voice spoke almost enchantingly. "It will be my pleasure." His tail once more swished. He started to hobble toward the chair at one end of the table, then stopped and sniffed. It only took April a moment for her to realize what he was smelling, and she tucked her hands innocently behind her back. "However," Splinter advised, turning back to face her again, "I would like Donatello to examine your burns post haste."

She smiled tremulously. She hadn't wanted him to know she'd been burned while preparing their dinner for them. "It's nothing, really."

Donatello poked his head back into the kitchen. The only thing that could pull him away from pizza was knowing that one of his family needed him. "April," he demanded to know, "how badly are you burned?"

"It's nothing really," she said and reluctantly showed them her reddened hands.

Donatello immediately set to applying a cream he'd created from Chinese herbs onto her upturned palms. The burn was instantly soothed, and though April was still embarrassed to have been caught being burned by cooking, she was nonetheless pleased. Her family was together. She could already hear Raphael, Leonardo, and Michelangelo gulping down the pizza and Splinter sat demurely at the opposite end of the table, folding his napkin in his lap and waiting eagerly to be able to start eating.

She knew, too, that they'd all love the presents she'd bought them: the new robe for Master Splinter, the brand new software for Donnie, the ancient sai for Raphael, the book on new and old sword techniques for Leonardo, and the collection of comic books and action figures for Mikey. They would all love their presents, but April already had the best present they could ever give her right here in her humble apartment. She had her family. They would stay with her for Christmas, and it was going to be the best Christmas any of them had had in a long, long time.

"There," Donatello announced. "All better?" he asked, his eye ridges rising as he gazed up at her inquisitively.

She nodded and grinned. "I can't even tell I was burned now. Thank you." Her smile began to waver as she tried to explain, knowing, from his stern gaze, that he wasn't going to let her go without an explanation. "I just don't often cook. After all, it's usually just me, and - " Her words trailed off; her voice trembled in embarrassment.

Mikey stuck his head in the kitchen and winked at Donnie. "That's okay, Ape. You know we Turtles love the pizza, but Sensei and you will enjoy the rest of this." He tackled her suddenly from behind, and at the same time, Donatello closed in on her from in front. April's eyes widened in surprise, and then she beamed as they hugged her tightly.

Meanwhile, in the living room, Leonardo had discovered mistletoe. He stood beneath the sprig, pizza in hand, and called to his brother and secret lover. "Hey, Raph."

Raphael glanced up with a scowl that deepened when Leo pointed up at the mistletoe. He drew his sai and threw it. It embedded in the wall right beside Leo's surprised face. The others looked up at the sound in the kitchen, but Splinter waved at them to dismiss the noise and they did so though not without considerable curiosity.

"Raph - " Leo started, his voice almost stammering in his surprise.

Raphael bounded over the couch as Michelangelo had done earlier. He grabbed his sai in one hand while his other still clung to a hot piece of pepperoni pie. Leo still looked at him in surprise, and that surprise grew as Raphael touched his beak to his. The kiss was surprisingly soft, what with it coming from Raph whose passion was usually so red hot, and swift. Raph pulled away before the others could venture back into the room and catch them and winked and grinned mischievously at his startled love. "Merry Christmas, Leo," he said, gulped down his slice, and flipped back over to the stack of pizzas to retrieve more of the only food fit for Turtle consumption, rather on Christmas, Thanksgiving, or any other day.

Leonardo was beaming by the time he pulled himself off of the wall. "Merry Christmas, Raph," he answered as Michelangelo and Donatello entered.

"Merry Christmas, every one," Mikey announced. "It's going to be a cowabunga of a holiday!" He hurried over to the pizza before Raph could get more slices than he, and the brothers grinned as they dove into the food and April and Splinter shared the main Christmas dinner. It was going to be the best Christmas any of them had ever had yet!

Inside the kitchen, Splinter was thinking the same thing as he ate slowly, enjoying each succulent bite of the food April had so pain stakingly created for them. His tail swished joyously beneath his robes. "April?" he spoke finally.

"Yes, Sensei?"

"Thank you." He smiled at her, and her heart warmed.

"I'm just glad to have some one to share it with."

"I was not just talking about the food." His whiskers twitched.

She beamed at him. "Neither was I. Merry Christmas, Splinter!"

"Merry Christmas, April!" Splinter answered, his heart soaring not just from the happiness that this holiday and the wonderful feast and oncoming presents his dear friend's caring ways had brought them but for the love and happiness that always filled his heart for his family and his children, all five of them.

**The End**


End file.
